What To Know
- Matt Gutman, a CBS News correspondent, has been accused of harassment in a lawsuit filed by former ABC News field producer Samira Said.
- The lawsuit also claims ABC News discriminated against Said by denying her reasonable accommodations after medical leave, demoting her, and ultimately firing her following a workplace injury.
- Said is seeking monetary damages for alleged discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and failure to accommodate.
CBS News star Matt Gutman was named in a lawsuit filed by Samira Said, a former co-worker who was an ABC News field producer.
On Friday, August 14, documents published by Variety revealed that ABC News, Gutman, and others, were named in the filing. Said alleged that while she was at ABC, she was “placed on a male-only team including on-air correspondent Matt Gutman” and two other male crew members.
“While the team waited in a public queue during the assignment, Gutman initiated a discussion rating a female correspondent’s appearance and reducing her professional standing to a numerical score based on her physical attributes,” the document claims. “The male crew joined in, continuing to assess the woman’s body and looks in Said’s presence. The men attempted to draw Said into the conversation by soliciting her views. Said declined and stated the conversation was inappropriate.”
During a different incident, during a press event for a film release, Said alleged that Gutman “disagreed about whether the team should leave the work site.”
“In front of multiple coworkers, Gutman responded by making a sexualized insinuation that Said must have an after-hours date in the city and that this is why she did not want to relocate,” the document detailed. “The remark, made audibly to others, demeaned Said and reduced her professional judgment to a sexualized stereotype.”
Additionally, the lawsuit said that after Said returned from a medical leave — which lasted from August 2022 to January 2023 — ABC denied her reasonable accommodation requests. The document also claimed that ABC News’ L.A. bureau chief David Herndon “made it clear that unless she returned without restrictions and with full-week availability, she would not be permitted to resume her role.”
“Following her medical leave and accommodation requests, Plaintiff was subjected to materially adverse treatment than she had experienced at any time prior to engaging in protected activity,” the lawsuit alleged, noting that Said was “demoted” to weekend desk shifts in March 2023.
In March 2025, ABC fired Said — shortly after she “sustained a workplace injury when heavy equipment struck her foot, resulting in a bone contusion” while covering “hazardous weather-related events.” The documents claimed, “Said reported the injury to her supervisors. A Disney physician evaluated Said and determined that her foot injury did not require her to take leave.”
Said is seeking monetary damages in the lawsuit, which was filed on Friday in Superior Court of the State of California in Los Angeles County. Her claims include discrimination based on “gender/sex; ancestry; and/or disability,” in addition to failure to provide reasonable accommodation, hostile work environment harassment, retaliation for engaging in a protected activity, and more.
The lawsuit came on the heels of CBS News earning its best ratings in 17 weeks while Gutman filled in for Tony Dokoupil on CBS Evening News.
TV Insider reached out to Gutman, ABC News, and CBS News, but did not immediately hear back.